Bitcoin rebounded sharply in Asia on Friday after a fresh wave of selling briefly pushed the token toward $60,000, extending a sharp decline that has now brought the world’s largest cryptocurrency more than 50% below its October peak.
BTC fell 4.8% to around $60,033 in late US hours, before recovering to $65,926. The move follows Thursday’s 13% drop, Bitcoin’s biggest one-day drop since November 2022, when the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX sparked a market-wide panic.
The rebound came as liquidations increased again, eliminating leveraged positions that had accumulated during the week’s decline.
According to liquidation tracker CoinGlass, around $700 million in crypto bets were wiped out in the last four hours, including around $530 million in long positions and $170 million in short positions. This combination suggests that traders were first crushed on the downside, then caught the wrong way on the rebound.
The move also appears to have attracted spot buyers, with $60,000 acting as a psychological line that traders have been watching for weeks.
Damien Loh, chief investment officer at Ericsenz Capital, said the rebound indicates “strong support” around this level, but cautioned that sentiment remains fragile given the broader market context.
Altcoins mirrored Bitcoin’s jigsaw. Solana at one point fell as much as 14% before completely erasing those losses within hours, showing how quickly risk appetite reverses as liquidity dwindles and forced selling takes over.
The broader crypto market has been fragile since a series of selloffs in October shook confidence, and the latest pullback was amplified by turmoil in global markets, where investors dumped speculative assets.
Bitcoin’s weakness is now impacting balance sheets linked to cryptocurrencies. Strategy, the company led by Michael Saylor, announced a fourth-quarter net loss of $12.4 billion on Thursday, due to the decline in the market value of its bitcoin holdings.
Even with Friday’s rebound, traders say the market still appears to be driven by leverage rather than conviction.
